The presidential campaign has been going on for a year and a half - long enough for voters to know the candidates but apparently not long enough for publishers to properly vet books for the voters' kids. Two picture books offer introductions to the nominees but, due to errors and omissions, come up short.

You expect family members to be partisan. And it's a reader's responsibility to consider the source. That said, there are still some puzzling lapses in My Dad, John McCain by Meghan McCain (illustrated by Dan Andreasen; Aladdin; 32 pages; $16.99; ages 5-10). McCain amplifies familiar territory - her father's rebellious youth, brave naval service and horrific five years in Hanoi as a POW. She also recalls his four years as a U.S. representative from Arizona and reviews his qualifications for the presidency. So far, so good.

What's missing? Some personal background, for starters. OK, it might be painful for a daughter to go into her father's first and failed marriage, to say nothing of his alleged affairs. Nonetheless, before Cindy McCain, there was Carol McCain, and some kids, too. Daughter McCain is a grown-up, a professional blogger who could have found a graceful way to approach her father's past.

Also MIA is anything about McCain's storied career as a senator. Meghan McCain simply says, "Dad's been in the U.S. Congress since I was a kid." Really. In fact, McCain's senatorial record speaks volumes about his legislative interests and his bipartisan efforts. She virtually ignores what he's done for the past 22 years except run for president in 2000 and again in 2008, giving an oversimplified picture of a complex man.

Poet Nikki Grimes provides a more complete and artful picture of a presidential hopeful in Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope (illustrated by Bryan Collier; Simon & Schuster; 44 pages; $16.99; ages 5-10). She sets up a story within a story: Young David watches TV coverage of "Braco-what" and discovers, thanks to his mother's explanations, many inspiring parallels in their lives: David, too, has a single mom and both have both African roots.

Boxed asides of conversation between mother and son help connect kids and candidate, but they often fall flat, as such contrivances often do. David's mother tells a stirring tale about Obama's life, drawn heavily from his autobiography, "Dreams From My Father." Her extremely pared-down commentary still manages to move from Kansas to Kenya, from Honolulu to the Ivy League, from community organizing to Harvard Law School, from old Chicago politics to new. Included are issues that plague the young Obama (abandonment and confused identity) as well as the challenges that engage him (bridging differences, working to build better lives and enacting change).

Grimes explains in an author's note that she has used artistic license. But artistic license does not legitimize saying just anything. Check out this passage about how Obama decided to make a run for the White House: "He saw the ghosts of his parents,/of Gramps and Toot,/ of Martin Luther King Jr. and JFK." All well and good, except that Toot, Obama's Kansas-born grandmother, is alive and living in Hawaii. She might not appreciate a premature assist to the grave.

One hopes that kids will get more honesty and accuracy from the candidates themselves than from these two well-intentioned books.